Hi to all thanks for this text,
this is what I all ready know long time ago:
but many people don't know, like other sad French lives more matter more
then Lebanese people, or
maybe is better to say French or krischans lives is more matter then Muslim
people,
sorry all my frents who feel krichen but I have to say that,
today bee Muslim in Europe or USA is sem way bee like Jewish in Germany
during second war Wald.
Muslims blame for everything, I would bee not surprise if some one say
Muslims fold is for climes changing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Vieni
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 8:56 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Our Terrorism Double Standard: After Paris, Let's
Stop Blaming Muslims and Take a Hard Look at Ourselves
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Our Terrorism Double Standard: After Paris, Let's Stop Blaming
Muslims and Take a Hard Look at Ourselves
________________________________________
Our Terrorism Double Standard: After Paris, Let's Stop Blaming Muslims and
Take a Hard Look at Ourselves
By Ben Norton [1] / Salon [2]
November 14, 2015
Anytime there is an attack on civilians in the post-9/11 West, demagogues
immediately blame it on Muslims. They frequently lack evidence, but depend
on the blunt force of anti-Muslim bigotry to bolster their accusations.
Actual evidence, on the other hand, shows that less than two percent [3] of
terrorist attacks from 2009 to 2013 in the E.U. were religiously motivated.
In 2013, just one percent of the 152 terrorist attacks were religious in
nature; in 2012, less than three percent of the 219 terrorist attacks were
inspired by religion.
The vast majority of terrorist attacks in these years were motivated by
ethno-nationalism or separatism. In 2013, 55 percent of terrorist attacks
were ethno-nationalist or separatist in nature; in 2012, more than
three-quarters (76 percent) of terrorist attacks were inspired by
ethno-nationalism or separatism.
These facts, nonetheless, have never stopped the prejudiced pundits from
insisting otherwise.
On Friday the 13th of November, militants massacred at least 127 people in
Paris in a series of heinous attacks.
There are many layers of hypocrisy in the public reaction to the tragedy
that must be sorted through in order to understand the larger context in
which these horrific attacks are situated — and, ultimately, to prevent such
attacks from happening in the future.
Right-wing exploitation
As soon as the news of the attacks broke, even though there was no evidence
and practically nothing was known about the attackers, a Who’s Who of
right-wing pundits immediately latched on [4] to the violence as an
opportunity to demonize Muslims and refugees from Muslim-majority countries.
In a disgrace to the victims, a shout chorus of reactionary demagogues
exploited the horrific attacks to distract from and even deny domestic
problems. They flatly told Black Lives Matter activists fighting for basic
civil and human rights, fast-food workers seeking livable wages and union
rights, and students challenging crippling debts that their problems are
insignificant because they are not being held hostage at gunpoint.
More insidiously, when evidence began to suggest that extremists were
responsible for the attacks, and when ISIS eventually claimed
responsibility, the demagogues implied or even downright insisted that Islam
— the religion of 1.6 billion people — was to blame, and that the
predominately (although not entirely) Muslim refugees entering the West are
only going to carry out more of such attacks.
Clampdown on Muslims and refugees
Every time Islamic extremists carry out an attack, the world’s 1.6 billion
Muslims are expected to collectively apologize; it has become a cold cliché
at this point.
Who benefits from such clampdown on Muslims and refugees?
Two primary groups: One, Islamic extremist groups themselves, who use the
clampdown as “evidence” that there is supposedly no room for Muslims in the
secular West that has declared war on Islam; and two,Europe’s growing
far-right [5], who will use the attacks as “evidence” that there is
supposedly no room for Muslims in the secular West that should declare war
on Islam.
Although enemies, both groups share a congruence of interests. The far-right
wants Muslims and refugees from Muslim-majority countries (even if they are
not Muslim) to leave because it sees them as innately violent terrorists.
Islamic extremists want Muslim refugees to leave so they can be radicalized
and join their caliphate.
More specifically, to name names, ISIS and al-Qaeda will benefit from the
clampdown on Muslims and refugees, and Europe’s growing far-right movement
will continue to recruit new members with anti-Muslim and anti-refugee
propaganda.
ISIS has explicitly stated that its goal is to make extinct what it calls
the “grayzone” — that is to say, Western acceptance of Muslims. The
“endangerment” of the grayzone “began with the blessed operations of
September 11th, as those operations manifested two camps before the world
for mankind to choose between, a camp of Islam … and a camp of kufr — the
crusader coalition,” wrote ISIS in its own publication [6].
Demonstrating how right-wing and Islamic extremist logic intersect, ISIS
actually favorably cited the black-and-white worldview shared ironically by
both former President George W. Bush and his intractable foe, al-Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden. ISIS wrote: “As Shaykh Usamah Ibn Ladin said, ‘The
world today is divided into two camps. Bush spoke the truth when he said,
“Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” Meaning, either you
are with the crusade or you are with Islam.'”
By making ISIS go viral, we are only helping them accomplish their sadistic
goals.
In the meantime, France’s extreme right-wing National Front party stands to
gain in particular. The party — which was founded by a neo-Nazi and is now
led by his estranged daughter Marine Le Pen — constantly rails against
Muslims, whom it hypocritically characterizes as Nazi occupiers [7]. In
2014, a Paris court ruled [8] it was fair to call the National Front
“fascist.”
Before the Paris attacks, Le Pen’s extreme-right movement was France’s
second-largest party. Now it may become the first.
The massacres that are ignored
There are hundreds of terrorist attacks in Europe every year. The ones that
immediately fill the headlines of every news outlet, however, are the ones
carried out by Muslims — not the ones carried out by ethno-nationalists or
far-right extremists, which happen to be much more frequent.
Yet it is not just right-wing pundits and the media that give much more
attention to attacks like those in Paris; heads of state frequently do so as
well. Minutes after the Paris attacks, Presidents Hollande and Obama
addressed the world, publicly lamenting the tragedy. Secretary John Kerry
condemned them as “heinous, evil, vile acts.”
Notable was the official silence surrounding another horrific terrorist
attack that took place only the day before. Two ISIS suicide bombers killed
at least 43 people and wounded more than 230 in attacks [9] on a heavily
Shia Muslim community in Beirut on November 12. President Obama did not
address the world and condemn the bombings, which comprised the worst attack
in Beirut in years.
In fact, the opposite happened; the victims of the ISIS attacks were
characterized in the U.S. media as Hezbollah human shields [10] and blamed
for their own deaths based on the unfortunate coincidence of their
geographical location. Some right-wing pundits even went so far as to
justify the ISIS attacks because they were assumed to be aimed at Hezbollah.
Nor did the White House interrupt every news broadcast to publicly condemn
the ISIS massacre [11] in Turkey in October that left approximately 128
people dead and 500 injured at a peaceful rally for a pro-Kurdish political
party.
More strikingly, where were the heads of state when the Western-backed,
Saudi-led coalition bombed a Yemeni wedding [12] on September 28, killing
131 civilians, including 80 women? That massacre didn’t go viral, and Obama
and Hollande did not apologize, yet alone barely even acknowledge the
tragedy.
Do French lives matter more than Lebanese, Turkish, Kurdish, and Yemeni
ones? Were these not, too, “heinous, evil, vile acts”?
Oddly familiar
We have seen this all before; it should be oddly familiar. The reaction to
the horrific January 2015 Paris attacks was equally predictable; the
knee-jerk Islamophobia ignored the crucial context for the tragic attack —
namely the fact that it was was the catastrophic U.S.-led war on Iraq and
torture at Abu Ghraib, not Charlie Hebdo cartoons, that radicalized the
shooters [13]. Also ignored was the fact that the extremist attackers were
sons of émigrés from Algeria, a country that for decades bled profusely
under barbarous French colonialism, which only ended after an even bloodier
war of independence in 1962 that left hundreds of thousands of Algerians
dead.
After the January Paris attacks, leaders from around the world — including
officials from Western-backed extremist theocratic tyrannies like Saudi
Arabia — gathered in Paris to supposedly participate in a march that turned
out to actually be a carefully orchestrated andcynical photo op [14].
And not only are Muslims collectively blamed for such attacks; they, too,
collectively bear the brunt of the backlash.
In just six days after the January attacks, the National Observatory Against
Islamophobia documented 60 incidents [15] of Islamophobic attacks and
threats in France. TellMAMA, a U.K.-based organization that monitors racist
anti-Muslim attacks, also reported 50-60 threats.
Once again, mere days before the January Paris attacks, the global community
largely glossed over another horrific tragedy: The slaughter of more than
2,000 Nigerians [16] by Boko Haram. The African victims didn’t get a march;
only the Western victims of Islamic extremism did.
Western culpability
A little-discussed yet crucial fact is that the vast, vast majority of the
victims of Islamic extremism are themselves Muslim, and live in
Muslim-majority countries. A 2012 U.S. National Counterterrorism Center
report [17] found that between 82 and 97 percent of the victims of
religiously motivated terrorist attacks over the previous five years were
Muslims.
The West frequently acts as though it is the principal victim, but the exact
contrary is true.
Never interrogated is why exactly are so many refugees fleeing the Middle
East and North Africa. It is not like millions of people want to leave their
homes and families; they are fleeing violence and chaos — violence and chaos
that happens to almost always be the result of Western military
intervention.
Western countries, particularly the U.S., are directly responsible for the
violence and destruction [18] in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen, from
which millions of refugees are fleeing:
• The illegal U.S.-led invasion of Iraq [19] led to the deaths of at
least one million people, destabilized the entire region, and created
extreme conditions in which militant groups like al-Qaeda spread like
wildfire, eventually leading to the emergence of ISIS.
• In Afghanistan [20], the ongoing U.S.-led war and occupation [21] —
which the Obama administration just prolonged for a second time — has led to
approximately a quarter of a million deaths and has displaced millions of
Afghans.
• The disastrous U.S.-led NATO intervention in Libya [22] destroyed
the government, turning the country into a hotbed for extremism and allowing
militant groups like ISIS to spread west into North Africa. Thousands of
Libyans have been killed, and hundreds of thousands made refugees.
• In Yemen [23], the U.S. and other Western nations are arming and
backing the Saudi-led coalition that is raining down bombs, including banned
cluster munitions, on civilian areas, pulverizing the poorest country in the
Middle East. And, once again — the story should now be familiar — thousands
have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Syria [24] is a bit more complicated. Many refugees in the country, which
has been torn apart by almost five years of bitter war, are fleeing the
brutal repression of the Assad government. Western countries and their
allies, however, share some of the blame. Allies such as Saudi Arabia and
Turkey have greatly inflamed the conflict by supporting extremist groups
[25] like al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra.
And it should go without saying that millions of Syrian refugees are fleeing
the very same terror at the hands of ISIS that the group allegedly unleashed
upon Paris. By suppressing Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing the ruthlessly
violent extremist group, France and other Western countries will only be
further adding to the already shocking number of its victims.
Dislocating the blame
When the U.S. and its allies bomb weddings [23] and hospitals [26] in Yemen
[27]and Afghanistan [28], killing hundreds of civilians, “Americans” doesn’t
trend globally on Twitter. Yet when Parisians are allegedly killed by
Islamic extremists, “Muslims” does.
The imperialist West always try to dislocate the blame. It’s always the
foreigner’s, the non-Westerner’s, the Other’s fault; it’s never the fault of
the enlightened West.
Islam is the new scapegoat. Western imperial policies of ravaging entire
nations, propping up repressive dictators, and supporting extremist groups
are conveniently forgotten.
The West is incapable of addressing its own imperial violence. Instead, it
points its blood-stained finger accusingly at the world’s 1.6 billion
Muslims and tells them they are the inherently violent ones.
Unfortunately, tragedies like the one we see in Paris are daily events in
much of the Middle East, no thanks to the policies of the governments of
France, the U.S., the U.K., and more. The horrific and unjustifiable yet
rare terrorist attacks we in the West experience are the quotidian reality
endured by those living in the region our governments brutalize.
This does not mean we should not mourn the Paris attacks; they are
abominable, and the victims should and must be mourned. But we should
likewise ensure that the victims of our governments’ crimes are mourned as
well.
If we truly believe that all lives are equally valuable, if we truly believe
that French lives matter no more than any others, we must mourn all deaths
equally.
The dangers of habit
We know the responses to attacks like these. Great danger lies in them
continuing on the same way.
Governments are going to call for more Western military intervention in the
Middle East, more bombs, and more guns. Hard-line right-wing Senator Ted
Cruz immediately demanded airstrikes [29] with more “tolerance for civilian
casualties.” Naturally, the proposed “solution” to individual acts of terror
is to ramp up campaigns of state terror.
At home, they will call for more fences, more police, and more surveillance.
Immediately after the Paris attacks, France closed its borders. In the U.S.,
as soon as the attacks were reported, the NYPD began militarizing [30] parts
of New York City.
The hegemonic “solution” is always more militarization, both abroad and here
at home. Yet it is in fact militarization that is the cause of the problem
in the first place.
At the time of the atrocious 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda was a relatively small
and isolated group. It was the U.S.-led war in and occupation of Iraq that
created the conditions of extreme violence, desperation, and sectarianism in
which al-Qaeda metastasized, spreading worldwide. The West, in its addiction
to militarism, played into the hands of the extremists, and today we see the
rotten fruit borne of that rotten addiction: ISIS is the Frankenstein’s
monster of Western imperialism.
Moreover, Western countries’ propping up of their oil-rich allies [31] in
the Gulf, extremist theocratic monarchies [32] like Saudi Arabia, is a
principal factor in the spread of Sunni extremism [33]. The Obama
administration did more than $100 billion of arms deals with the Saudi
monarchy [34] in the past five years, and France has increasingly signed
enormous military contracts [35] with theocratic autocracies like Saudi
Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
If these are the strategies our governments continue to pursue, attacks like
those in Paris will only be more frequent.
The far-right will continue to grow. Neo-fascism, the most dangerous
development in the world today, will gain traction. People will radicalize.
The incidence of attacks inspired by ethno-nationalism or far-right
extremism, already the leading cause of European and American terror [36],
will increase even further.
The pundits will boost anti-Muslim bigotry and feed the anti-refugee fervor.
In doing so, they will only make matters worse.
The Paris attacks, as horrific as they are, could be a moment to think
critically about what our governments are doing both abroad and here at
home. If we do not think critically, if we act capriciously, and violently,
the wounds will only continue to fester. The bloodletting will ultimately
accelerate.
In short, those who promote militarist policies and anti-Muslim and
anti-refugee bigotries in response to the Paris attacks are only going to
further propagate violence and hatred.
If the political cycle is not changed, the cycle of violence will continue.
Ben Norton is a freelance writer and journalist. His website can be found at
http://BenNorton.com/ [37].
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [38]
[39]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/our-terrorism-double-standard-afte
r-paris-lets-stop-blaming-muslims-and-take-hard
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/ben-norton-0
[2] http://www.salon.com
[3]
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-terrorism-europe/
[4]
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/right-wingers-already-giddy-over
-paris-attacks
[5]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/22/i_thought_i_was_going_to_die_it_was_horrible
_the_growing_far_right_is_attacking_refugees_throughout_europe/
[6] https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/665337881351729152
[7] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34324335
[8]
http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20140410-front-nationals-le-pen-can-be-call
ed-fascist-court-rules
[9]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/world/middleeast/lebanon-explosions-southe
rn-beirut-hezbollah.html
[10]
http://fair.org/home/media-turn-civilian-isis-victims-in-beirut-into-hezboll
ah-human-shields/
[11]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/11/us-turkey-explosion-toll-idUSKCN0S
50FI20151011
[12] https://t.co/9pVy3DXmjU
[13]
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/paris_terrorist_radicalized_by_bushs_ira
q_war_abu_ghraib_torture_20150108
[14] https://twitter.com/borzou/status/554605138426736640
[15]
http://news.yahoo.com/europes-muslims-feel-heat-backlash-paris-terror-123511
491.html#
[16]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/09/boko-haram-deadliest-massacre-b
aga-nigeria
[17] http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195555.htm
[18] http://mondoweiss.net/2015/09/refugee-crisis-since
[19]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/27/tony_blair_is_sorry_for_iraq_george_w_bush_a
nd_jeb_will_barely_admit_he_was_president_on_911/
[20]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/08/well_only_listen_to_john_oliver_the_crisis_w
e_caused_and_we_need_to_help_fix/
[21]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/06/john_mccains_insane_delusions_the_big_afghan
istan_lie_he_will_not_let_go_of/
[22]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/26/the_real_benghazi_scandal_that_is_being_igno
red_how_hillary_clinton_and_the_obama_administration_destroyed_libya/
[23]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/09/we_must_pay_attention_to_yemen_eddings_bombe
d_civilians_killed_with_u_s_help/
[24]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/30/theres_one_group_missing_from_the_talks_to_e
nd_the_syrian_civil_war_syrians/
[25]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-crisis-turkey-and-
saudi-arabia-shock-western-countries-by-supporting-anti-assad-jihadists-1024
2747.html
[26]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/28/u_s_backed_saudi_coalition_bombs_doctors_wit
hout_borders_hospital_weeks_after_u_s_destroyed_afghan_hospital/
[27]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/30/saudi_authorities_are_denying_the_evident_tr
uth_doctors_without_borders_says_its_beyond_doubt_that_u_s_backed_coalition_
bombed_hospital/
[28]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/05/we_have_committed_a_war_crime_patients_were_
burning_in_their_beds/
[29] https://t.co/KpuShVmd7V
[30]
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2015/11/13/nypd-on-heightened-alert
-following-terror-attacks-in-paris.html?cid=twitter_NY1
[31]
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/02/blood_for_oil_u_s_state_dept_calls_bahrains_
tyrannical_monarchy_a_close_valued_partner_thanks_it_for_oil/
[32]
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/23/in_u_s_backed_gulf_regimes_you_face_years_in
_prison_or_execution_for_insulting_the_king/
[33]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-yousaf-butt-/saudi-wahhabism-islam-terroris
m_b_6501916.html
[34]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/03/26/how-u-s-weapons
-will-play-a-large-role-in-saudi-arabias-war-in-yemen/
[35]
https://news.vice.com/article/if-the-us-wont-sell-you-weapons-france-might-s
till-hook-you-up
[36]
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/05/why_fox_news_still_wont_face_up_to_right_win
g_terror_in_america_partner/
[37] http://www.bennorton.com/
[38] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Our Terrorism Double
Standard: After Paris, Let's Stop Blaming Muslims and Take a Hard Look
at Ourselves
[39] http://www.alternet.org/
[40] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Our Terrorism Double Standard: After Paris, Let's Stop Blaming
Muslims and Take a Hard Look at Ourselves
Our Terrorism Double Standard: After Paris, Let's Stop Blaming Muslims and
Take a Hard Look at Ourselves
By Ben Norton [1] / Salon [2]
November 14, 2015
Anytime there is an attack on civilians in the post-9/11 West, demagogues
immediately blame it on Muslims. They frequently lack evidence, but depend
on the blunt force of anti-Muslim bigotry to bolster their accusations.
Actual evidence, on the other hand, shows that less than two percent [3] of
terrorist attacks from 2009 to 2013 in the E.U. were religiously motivated.
In 2013, just one percent of the 152 terrorist attacks were religious in
nature; in 2012, less than three percent of the 219 terrorist attacks were
inspired by religion.
The vast majority of terrorist attacks in these years were motivated by
ethno-nationalism or separatism. In 2013, 55 percent of terrorist attacks
were ethno-nationalist or separatist in nature; in 2012, more than
three-quarters (76 percent) of terrorist attacks were inspired by
ethno-nationalism or separatism.
These facts, nonetheless, have never stopped the prejudiced pundits from
insisting otherwise.
On Friday the 13th of November, militants massacred at least 127 people in
Paris in a series of heinous attacks.
There are many layers of hypocrisy in the public reaction to the tragedy
that must be sorted through in order to understand the larger context in
which these horrific attacks are situated — and, ultimately, to prevent such
attacks from happening in the future.
Right-wing exploitation
As soon as the news of the attacks broke, even though there was no evidence
and practically nothing was known about the attackers, a Who’s Who of
right-wing pundits immediately latched on [4] to the violence as an
opportunity to demonize Muslims and refugees from Muslim-majority countries.
In a disgrace to the victims, a shout chorus of reactionary demagogues
exploited the horrific attacks to distract from and even deny domestic
problems. They flatly told Black Lives Matter activists fighting for basic
civil and human rights, fast-food workers seeking livable wages and union
rights, and students challenging crippling debts that their problems are
insignificant because they are not being held hostage at gunpoint.
More insidiously, when evidence began to suggest that extremists were
responsible for the attacks, and when ISIS eventually claimed
responsibility, the demagogues implied or even downright insisted that Islam
— the religion of 1.6 billion people — was to blame, and that the
predominately (although not entirely) Muslim refugees entering the West are
only going to carry out more of such attacks.
Clampdown on Muslims and refugees
Every time Islamic extremists carry out an attack, the world’s 1.6 billion
Muslims are expected to collectively apologize; it has become a cold cliché
at this point.
Who benefits from such clampdown on Muslims and refugees?
Two primary groups: One, Islamic extremist groups themselves, who use the
clampdown as “evidence” that there is supposedly no room for Muslims in the
secular West that has declared war on Islam; and two,Europe’s growing
far-right [5], who will use the attacks as “evidence” that there is
supposedly no room for Muslims in the secular West that should declare war
on Islam.
Although enemies, both groups share a congruence of interests. The far-right
wants Muslims and refugees from Muslim-majority countries (even if they are
not Muslim) to leave because it sees them as innately violent terrorists.
Islamic extremists want Muslim refugees to leave so they can be radicalized
and join their caliphate.
More specifically, to name names, ISIS and al-Qaeda will benefit from the
clampdown on Muslims and refugees, and Europe’s growing far-right movement
will continue to recruit new members with anti-Muslim and anti-refugee
propaganda.
ISIS has explicitly stated that its goal is to make extinct what it calls
the “grayzone” — that is to say, Western acceptance of Muslims. The
“endangerment” of the grayzone “began with the blessed operations of
September 11th, as those operations manifested two camps before the world
for mankind to choose between, a camp of Islam … and a camp of kufr — the
crusader coalition,” wrote ISIS in its own publication [6].
Demonstrating how right-wing and Islamic extremist logic intersect, ISIS
actually favorably cited the black-and-white worldview shared ironically by
both former President George W. Bush and his intractable foe, al-Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden. ISIS wrote: “As Shaykh Usamah Ibn Ladin said, ‘The
world today is divided into two camps. Bush spoke the truth when he said,
“Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” Meaning, either you
are with the crusade or you are with Islam.'”
By making ISIS go viral, we are only helping them accomplish their sadistic
goals.
In the meantime, France’s extreme right-wing National Front party stands to
gain in particular. The party — which was founded by a neo-Nazi and is now
led by his estranged daughter Marine Le Pen — constantly rails against
Muslims, whom it hypocritically characterizes as Nazi occupiers [7]. In
2014, a Paris court ruled [8] it was fair to call the National Front
“fascist.”
Before the Paris attacks, Le Pen’s extreme-right movement was France’s
second-largest party. Now it may become the first.
The massacres that are ignored
There are hundreds of terrorist attacks in Europe every year. The ones that
immediately fill the headlines of every news outlet, however, are the ones
carried out by Muslims — not the ones carried out by ethno-nationalists or
far-right extremists, which happen to be much more frequent.
Yet it is not just right-wing pundits and the media that give much more
attention to attacks like those in Paris; heads of state frequently do so as
well. Minutes after the Paris attacks, Presidents Hollande and Obama
addressed the world, publicly lamenting the tragedy. Secretary John Kerry
condemned them as “heinous, evil, vile acts.”
Notable was the official silence surrounding another horrific terrorist
attack that took place only the day before. Two ISIS suicide bombers killed
at least 43 people and wounded more than 230 in attacks [9] on a heavily
Shia Muslim community in Beirut on November 12. President Obama did not
address the world and condemn the bombings, which comprised the worst attack
in Beirut in years.
In fact, the opposite happened; the victims of the ISIS attacks were
characterized in the U.S. media as Hezbollah human shields [10] and blamed
for their own deaths based on the unfortunate coincidence of their
geographical location. Some right-wing pundits even went so far as to
justify the ISIS attacks because they were assumed to be aimed at Hezbollah.
Nor did the White House interrupt every news broadcast to publicly condemn
the ISIS massacre [11] in Turkey in October that left approximately 128
people dead and 500 injured at a peaceful rally for a pro-Kurdish political
party.
More strikingly, where were the heads of state when the Western-backed,
Saudi-led coalition bombed a Yemeni wedding [12] on September 28, killing
131 civilians, including 80 women? That massacre didn’t go viral, and Obama
and Hollande did not apologize, yet alone barely even acknowledge the
tragedy.
Do French lives matter more than Lebanese, Turkish, Kurdish, and Yemeni
ones? Were these not, too, “heinous, evil, vile acts”?
Oddly familiar
We have seen this all before; it should be oddly familiar. The reaction to
the horrific January 2015 Paris attacks was equally predictable; the
knee-jerk Islamophobia ignored the crucial context for the tragic attack —
namely the fact that it was was the catastrophic U.S.-led war on Iraq and
torture at Abu Ghraib, not Charlie Hebdo cartoons, that radicalized the
shooters [13]. Also ignored was the fact that the extremist attackers were
sons of émigrés from Algeria, a country that for decades bled profusely
under barbarous French colonialism, which only ended after an even bloodier
war of independence in 1962 that left hundreds of thousands of Algerians
dead.
After the January Paris attacks, leaders from around the world — including
officials from Western-backed extremist theocratic tyrannies like Saudi
Arabia — gathered in Paris to supposedly participate in a march that turned
out to actually be a carefully orchestrated andcynical photo op [14].
And not only are Muslims collectively blamed for such attacks; they, too,
collectively bear the brunt of the backlash.
In just six days after the January attacks, the National Observatory Against
Islamophobia documented Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. [15] of
Islamophobic attacks and threats in France. TellMAMA, a U.K.-based
organization that monitors racist anti-Muslim attacks, also reported 50-60
threats.
Once again, mere days before the January Paris attacks, the global community
largely glossed over another horrific tragedy: The slaughter of more than
2,000 Nigerians [16] by Boko Haram. The African victims didn’t get a march;
only the Western victims of Islamic extremism did.
Western culpability
A little-discussed yet crucial fact is that the vast, vast majority of the
victims of Islamic extremism are themselves Muslim, and live in
Muslim-majority countries. A 2012 U.S. National Counterterrorism Center
report [17] found that between 82 and 97 percent of the victims of
religiously motivated terrorist attacks over the previous five years were
Muslims.
The West frequently acts as though it is the principal victim, but the exact
contrary is true.
Never interrogated is why exactly are so many refugees fleeing the Middle
East and North Africa. It is not like millions of people want to leave their
homes and families; they are fleeing violence and chaos — violence and chaos
that happens to almost always be the result of Western military
intervention.
Western countries, particularly the U.S., are directly responsible for the
violence and destruction [18] in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen, from
which millions of refugees are fleeing:
• The illegal U.S.-led invasion of Iraq [19] led to the deaths of at
least one million people, destabilized the entire region, and created
extreme conditions in which militant groups like al-Qaeda spread like
wildfire, eventually leading to the emergence of ISIS.
• In Afghanistan [20], the ongoing U.S.-led war and occupation [21] —
which the Obama administration just prolonged for a second time — has led to
approximately a quarter of a million deaths and has displaced millions of
Afghans.
• The disastrous U.S.-led NATO intervention in Libya [22] destroyed
the government, turning the country into a hotbed for extremism and allowing
militant groups like ISIS to spread west into North Africa. Thousands of
Libyans have been killed, and hundreds of thousands made refugees.
• In Yemen [23], the U.S. and other Western nations are arming and
backing the Saudi-led coalition that is raining down bombs, including banned
cluster munitions, on civilian areas, pulverizing the poorest country in the
Middle East. And, once again — the story should now be familiar — thousands
have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Syria [24] is a bit more complicated. Many refugees in the country, which
has been torn apart by almost five years of bitter war, are fleeing the
brutal repression of the Assad government. Western countries and their
allies, however, share some of the blame. Allies such as Saudi Arabia and
Turkey have greatly inflamed the conflict by supporting extremist groups
[25] like al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra.
And it should go without saying that millions of Syrian refugees are fleeing
the very same terror at the hands of ISIS that the group allegedly unleashed
upon Paris. By suppressing Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing the ruthlessly
violent extremist group, France and other Western countries will only be
further adding to the already shocking number of its victims.
Dislocating the blame
When the U.S. and its allies bomb weddings [23] and hospitals [26] in Yemen
[27]and Afghanistan [28], killing hundreds of civilians, “Americans” doesn’t
trend globally on Twitter. Yet when Parisians are allegedly killed by
Islamic extremists, “Muslims” does.
The imperialist West always try to dislocate the blame. It’s always the
foreigner’s, the non-Westerner’s, the Other’s fault; it’s never the fault of
the enlightened West.
Islam is the new scapegoat. Western imperial policies of ravaging entire
nations, propping up repressive dictators, and supporting extremist groups
are conveniently forgotten.
The West is incapable of addressing its own imperial violence. Instead, it
points its blood-stained finger accusingly at the world’s 1.6 billion
Muslims and tells them they are the inherently violent ones.
Unfortunately, tragedies like the one we see in Paris are daily events in
much of the Middle East, no thanks to the policies of the governments of
France, the U.S., the U.K., and more. The horrific and unjustifiable yet
rare terrorist attacks we in the West experience are the quotidian reality
endured by those living in the region our governments brutalize.
This does not mean we should not mourn the Paris attacks; they are
abominable, and the victims should and must be mourned. But we should
likewise ensure that the victims of our governments’ crimes are mourned as
well.
If we truly believe that all lives are equally valuable, if we truly believe
that French lives matter no more than any others, we must mourn all deaths
equally.
The dangers of habit
We know the responses to attacks like these. Great danger lies in them
continuing on the same way.
Governments are going to call for more Western military intervention in the
Middle East, more bombs, and more guns. Hard-line right-wing Senator Ted
Cruz immediately demanded airstrikes [29] with more “tolerance for civilian
casualties.” Naturally, the proposed “solution” to individual acts of terror
is to ramp up campaigns of state terror.
At home, they will call for more fences, more police, and more surveillance.
Immediately after the Paris attacks, France closed its borders. In the U.S.,
as soon as the attacks were reported, the NYPD began militarizing [30] parts
of New York City.
The hegemonic “solution” is always more militarization, both abroad and here
at home. Yet it is in fact militarization that is the cause of the problem
in the first place.
At the time of the atrocious 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda was a relatively small
and isolated group. It was the U.S.-led war in and occupation of Iraq that
created the conditions of extreme violence, desperation, and sectarianism in
which al-Qaeda metastasized, spreading worldwide. The West, in its addiction
to militarism, played into the hands of the extremists, and today we see the
rotten fruit borne of that rotten addiction: ISIS is the Frankenstein’s
monster of Western imperialism.
Moreover, Western countries’ propping up of their oil-rich allies [31] in
the Gulf, extremist theocratic monarchies [32] like Saudi Arabia, is a
principal factor in the spread of Sunni extremism [33]. The Obama
administration did more than $100 billion of arms deals with the Saudi
monarchy [34] in the past five years, and France has increasingly signed
enormous military contracts [35] with theocratic autocracies like Saudi
Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
If these are the strategies our governments continue to pursue, attacks like
those in Paris will only be more frequent.
The far-right will continue to grow. Neo-fascism, the most dangerous
development in the world today, will gain traction. People will radicalize.
The incidence of attacks inspired by ethno-nationalism or far-right
extremism, already the leading cause of European and American terror [36],
will increase even further.
The pundits will boost anti-Muslim bigotry and feed the anti-refugee fervor.
In doing so, they will only make matters worse.
The Paris attacks, as horrific as they are, could be a moment to think
critically about what our governments are doing both abroad and here at
home. If we do not think critically, if we act capriciously, and violently,
the wounds will only continue to fester. The bloodletting will ultimately
accelerate.
In short, those who promote militarist policies and anti-Muslim and
anti-refugee bigotries in response to the Paris attacks are only going to
further propagate violence and hatred.
If the political cycle is not changed, the cycle of violence will continue.
Ben Norton is a freelance writer and journalist. His website can be found at
http://BenNorton.com/ [37].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [38]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[39]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/our-terrorism-double-standard-afte
r-paris-lets-stop-blaming-muslims-and-take-hard
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/ben-norton-0
[2] http://www.salon.com
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[4]
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[6] https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/665337881351729152
[7] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34324335
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[11]
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50FI20151011
[12] https://t.co/9pVy3DXmjU
[13]
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q_war_abu_ghraib_torture_20150108
[14] https://twitter.com/borzou/status/554605138426736640
[15]
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491.html#
[16]
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aga-nigeria
[17] http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195555.htm
[18] http://mondoweiss.net/2015/09/refugee-crisis-since
[19]
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istan_lie_he_will_not_let_go_of/
[22]
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d_civilians_killed_with_u_s_help/
[24]
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nd_the_syrian_civil_war_syrians/
[25]
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saudi-arabia-shock-western-countries-by-supporting-anti-assad-jihadists-1024
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[26]
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hout_borders_hospital_weeks_after_u_s_destroyed_afghan_hospital/
[27]
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[28]
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[29] https://t.co/KpuShVmd7V
[30]
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[31]
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[34]
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-will-play-a-large-role-in-saudi-arabias-war-in-yemen/
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g_terror_in_america_partner/
[37] http://www.bennorton.com/
[38] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Our Terrorism Double
Standard: After Paris, Let's Stop Blaming Muslims and Take a Hard Look
at Ourselves
[39] http://www.alternet.org/
[40] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
